The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1887-08-18

elry and searched their pockets for money.
When the dead bodies were laid out in
the corn fields these hyenas turned them over
in their search for Valuables, and that the
plumber was done by IN organized gang was
proven by the fact that this morning out in
the cornfield sixteen purses; all empty; were
found In one heap. It was ghastly plumber
Ing, and had the plunderers been caught
this afternoon they would surely have been
lynched. There was one incident of the &C
c;dent which stood OUT more horrible than
all or these horrible scenes In the second
coach were man, his wife and little child.
His name could not be learned to-day, but
it is said ho got on at Peoria When the &C
cident occurred the entire family of three
was caught and held dgwn by broken wood
work. Finally when relief came the man
turned to the friendly aid aid feebly said:
3Take out my wife first; I'm afraid the child
Is dead" So they carried out the mother,
anu az broken seat was taken off
her crushed breast the blood which
weiled from her lips told how badly
she was hurt They carried the child-a
fair-haired, blue-eyed girl of three-and laid
her In the corn field dead, along side of her
dying mother: Then they went buck for the
father and brought him out Both his legs
were broken. but he crawled through the
corn to tho side of his wife aud, feeling her
loved features in the darkness, pressed some
brandy to her lips and asked her how she
felt A feeble groad was
THE ONLY ANSWER
and the next instant she died. The man felt
the forms OF his dead wife and child and
cried out, my God! there is nothing more
for me to live for now," and taking a pistol
out of his pocket, pulled the trigger The
bullet went surely through his brain, and the
three dead bodies of that little family are
now lying side by side in Chatsworth waiting
to be identified About S o'clock the re-
porter was driven out to the
wreck. The driveway led along the
left Of tho railroad and to
the south os the road was
an old-tashioned Usage orange hedge. The
road was very muddy and full! of chuck holes.
A stream of humanity was pouring in from
the wreck. Some had checks in their hats
and carried valises They were evidently
passengers on the Inflated train. Country
boys and girls came along swinging hands
and talking in low tones about the terrible
disaster. A photographer dragged his
weary limbs along the track. He
OF negatives. Tho roadbed was almost
level just little grade running up to the
wreck at raise Of ten or fifteen feet to the
mile About two or three miles from the
town on a little raise was the debris of the
wreck. The sleeping car sTunis" was at the
end of the train. 1t was lacked in the air,
supported by the trestles. The front end of
tho car was directly over the place where
the bridge stood To the right lay a coach
all
BROKEN INTO KINDIING WOOD,
and directly on the road was pied up what
was left of six OF seven coaches, turned
bottom side up, and broken beyond recog-
nition Across the track in front of the pie
OF debris was coach lying crosswise, way
up at least ton feet in the air. Beyond were
the two tenders and one engine. One ten
der was to the left of the track and the
other to the right They were turned
bottom side up and rent assunder. The engine
was scarcely recognizable. On the side
of the cab was the ill-starred number "l3 !"
Only big pane of glass marked a13." On
the hedge were hats. shoes, and all manner
of wearing apparel, broken lanterns and
seats from the cars 1t was an awful sight
Hats of men and women, broken and scared
with blood, coats reeking with gore. and
ladies' underwear smeared with life-fluid
It was plain to be seen from the looks of the
baggage that the travellers were well-to-do
people. There was
AN INCIDENT
in the affair which was not only remarkable
in its way, but shows how terribly these six
coaches were damned and mashed together.
When the accident occurred Andy Mooney
of Peoria and Conductor Stillwell, who was
in charge OF the train, were three cars from
each other. Mooney was in the second car
and Stillwell in the fifth. The next instant
they found themselves literally in each
others arms, the Car in which the conductor
was riding having been carried over the two
in front and dropped ON top of
the one which Mooney was in. The strange
part of it was neither man was hurt The
most horrible death of all was that of En-
gincer McClintock, engineer OF the second en-
CINE of the double header. The first engine
which Engineer Sutherland was; driving
passed over the burning bridge in safety,
but it was under it's weight that the half
consumed bridge gave way, and the tender
dropped back into the dry slough
Sutherland's engine kept the rails and
ran on In safety, such was the
awful speed of the unfortunate train
McClintock's engine plunged down into the
black hole, and as the tender mounted on
top of the cab it took McClintock in the back
of the neck and cut his head clean off his
shoulders The trunk was found under the
engine, the head couldn't be discovered. and
the presumption Is that it was ground to
atoms in the horrible mllstones of the en-
gtnc and the tender. There have been MANY
guesses as to the origin of the fire which
weakened the bridge and caused the acct
dent, but SO far they are nothing but
guesses The
NEWS OF THE DISASTER
was brought to Chatsworth by one of the
passengers about midnight, and the inhabi-
tants aroused, buggies, lumber wagons, and
every kind of vehicles were used to reach
the fatal spot AS fast as the corpsas were
taken from the wreck they were laid out on
the side of the track. Before daylight
the work of recovering the dead and remov-
ing them to Chatsworth was begun
As soon as the corpses were received
they we've placed in large, empty building,
lately occupied as q store, also in the public
school house and in the depot waiting room.
Tho residents of the town threw open their
houses for the reception of the dead and
wounded, but the former were all taken to
the improvised morguea Friends and
relatives OF the dead came to Chats
worth with the remains and the scenes
In the different places where the bodies lay
was most heartrending and distressing. As
the day passed bodies were continually
brought In from the scene of the wreck The
majority of them were mangled In the most
frightful manner, many of them having their
faces entirely torn away. leaving their
bones exposed, while their Jaws
fingers and legs had been torn Oh
Indirectly the catastrophe was ascribed to
the origin OF SO many other recent great
calamities-the unprecedented drouth The
tall grass under a little culvert on the Toledo.
Peoria Western, few miles east OF
Chatsworth had been rendered By the
sun as dry as finder, and last night a loco
motive spark set it ablaze, tho timber,
OF the culvert caught on firo and
were smouldering unseen when IT
train OF sixteen coaches Of exoursionists
from Peoria and Bloomington and neighbor-
ing cities There was terrific crash
and IN accident almost unpreosdent IT,
horrors had passed into history. That was
the brief story Onf0k1v O1oamAd nm 81.